Three Minutes With Sundance's New Erin Brockovich

Josh Fox—the director of Gasland—grew up in Milanville, Pennsylvania. One day not too long ago he received a letter in the mail telling him that natural gas drilling was coming to his doorstep: A Halliburton-designed technology could unlock the rich reserve of natural gas underneath the ground in the Catskills/Poconos region. Why were they coming now? Well, for starters, in 2005, the Bush administration exempted the natural gas industry from the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Right-to-Know Act, to name a few—and production was ramping up! The local provider was offering Fox something like $5,000 an acre to drill on his property. (Fox owned 20 acres). Why would someone offer him $100,000 in cash? Fox started investigating. And what he found shocked him. In towns out west, where this technique called hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) was used, people were getting sick. Mysterious ailments, cancer, that sort of thing. Fox (and many others) believed the chemicals in fracking (chemicals Halliburton declined to identify, calling them "proprietary") were seeping into the water table, threatening to permanently taint the supply. Fox set off on a cross-country research tour. He speaks:

The story in Gasland is shocking. But it's balanced with humor.
A kind of humor.

Yes. You show people lighting their tap water on fire. The war is so ripe with chemicals, it's actually combustible.
There was rolling laughter for that

I can understand why people would take the money. There are some depressed areas of the Catskills. (David France wrote a terrific article for New York magazine on the new Catskills gas rush.) And suddenly, here's someone handing you a huge check, and all you have to do is let them install a rig on your lawn.
I don't know what my house is worth. But no one buys a house that doesn't have water.
People think I'm tearing up their lottery tickets. But they're tearing up my home.

There are a lot of celebrities in town pushing their films. Is it tough to get Sundance-goers to focus on issue documentaries?
Our screenings are sold out. At the first screening, 85 percent stayed for the Q&A. That's a good sign.

What's the goal here? To infuriate people into action?
Obviously this is a festival run. We've set up a website. You can contact your congressman. Moving forward, the main thing is getting this idea into the public consciousness. There is a tipping point.

Is Dick Cheney the villain of this film? The movie starts with his face…
I think the film speaks for itself. [pause] Much of this was put into place by Dick Cheney. But there is bipartisan ignorance. Democrats and Republicans voted this in. Dick Cheney had 74 senators vote for this. We need leadership, because the EPA is off the job.

Do you feel like Erin Brockovich?
You know, Erin was dealing with one chemical in one town. I'm dealing with 596 chemicals in 34 states.